Not home for Christmas
Subtitle: a day in the life of the Mighty Eighth
By: collected and compiled by John Meurs.
Contributors: Meurs, John.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Quail Ridge Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Brandon, MS
Language: eng
Number of pages: 542
ISBN-13: 9781934193310
Subjects: United States. -- Army Air Forces. -- Air Force, 8th -- History; United States. -- Army Air Forces -- Airmen -- Biography; World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American; World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American; Bombing, Aerial -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
Genres: Personal narratives, American
Description: "When author John Meurs was a nine-year-old schoolboy living in Nazi-occupied Holland, an American B-17 bomber crashed behind his house near the village of Apeldoorn. The date was Sunday, November 26, 1944. Meurs always wanted to know more about what happened in the air on that Thanksgiving Sunday. So, more than sixty years later ... he started researching the B-17. He quickly found that the bomber was part of the 8th Air Force Air Combat Command. Meurs findings intrigued him ... and after discovering many interesting facts, Meurs focused his research on the 34 heavy bombers of the Mighty Eighth that were lost that day. He collected the personal stories of veterans who lived through it, families of veterans lost, and witnesses of the crashes. These first-hand recollections, captured in this book, provide a compelling and terrifying account of the reality of war. Thanks to the noble men of the Mighty Eighth who would not be home for Christmas in 1944 and their comrades in arms, many people the world over now live in peace and freedom"--Page [4] of cover.